931 – Māhmūd ibn Labīd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was told about a man who divorced his wife with three pronouncements all at once. The Prophet rose in anger and said, ‘Is the Book of Allah being toyed with while I am still among you?!’ A man then stood up and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, shall I not kill him?’” Al-Nasāʾī transmitted the report, and its narrators are reliable. (1)

Authenticity of the ḥadith
• The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ (authentic).
• Ibn Kathīr said: “Its isnād is jayyid (good).”
• The author states: “Al-Nasāʾī narrated it and its transmitters are deemed reliable,” and adds in Fatḥ al-Bārī: “Its narrators are trustworthy.”
• Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī says in al-Muḥarrar: “Al-Nasāʾī reported it, and I know of no one besides Makhramah who transmitted this ḥadith.”
• Ibn al-Qayyim writes in Zād al-Maʿād: “Its chain meets Muslim’s criteria, and Makhramah is unquestionably trustworthy; Muslim relied on him in his Ṣaḥīḥ for what he narrated from his father. Those who critiqued the report said he did not hear directly from his father.”
• Abū Ṭālib relates: “I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about Makhramah ibn Bukayr. He said, ‘He is reliable, but he did not hear from his father; rather, it is Makhramah’s notebook.’”

The answer: His father’s notebook remained with him, carefully preserved and precisely checked; therefore, in establishing proof there is no difference between what he recited from memory and what he transmitted from the written record. Indeed, taking from a verified copy is even safer, provided the transmitter is certain that it is the very manuscript of the shaykh himself. This was the practice of the Companions and the early generations.